Mid-December news

Newspaper iconExciting news today from Breakout Manchester that their fifth different room is now open for booking! It’s at the same location as the first four, though the earliest you can book for is mid-January. The game’s name is Infiltrate and they estimate it as harder than their John Monroe’s Detective Office room but easier than their Madchester room. The story runs as follows: You have infiltrated a maximum security ward to speak to one of the most dangerous criminals ever to have walked the planet. You believe this person may hold the answer to the disappearance of your best friend. Having broken in, to your shock, the prisoner has disappeared. You have 60 minutes before the guards arrive to do their hourly check of all prisoners. Search the room for information regarding the disappearance of your best friend and work out how the prisoner escaped. It’ll be exciting to discover how the game plays, especially in comparison to all their previous hits! Many people have been to the site already, and several have played all four of their current games; another reason to go back, perhaps?

BathEscape recently announced on Twitter that they will be awarding a 15% discount to families of up to two adults and two children coming to play their games who hold the Max Card. As the Max Card is a discount card for foster families and families of children with additional needs, this is pretty cool. This enterprise is not primarily intended as a great money-making scheme for BathEscape, and several other exit games do a lot of good work for deserving causes as well. Nevertheless, this is well worth pointing out.

Many thanks to loyal friend of the site Mark for providing an exciting new logo! This has been the excuse that this site has been looking for, for a while, to apply a new theme. The logo is great, and you might see it in the top-left hand corner already, or if your browser is relatively narrow (or if you’re looking on a mobile device, etc.) you might have to click on the little “menu” button to see it and the rest of the navigation. This site isn’t entirely convinced about the new theme, though, and there may be further work on it in the coming days. If you have any views about the new layout, or if it means that you just can’t do something that you used to be able to do, please comment and these comments will be taken into account when thinking about whether or not this new look will stick for good.

Black Friday 2014 Dealwatch: coupons and discounts to play escape games for less

All-black discount starEven the discount starburst has blacked out completely to celebrate the day. (While the day’s celebration is an import, perhaps this is in preparation for bringing the world’s number one online shopping day, China’s Singles Day, to being a similarly celebrated event in other countries as well.) There are a couple of deals coming up that are available today only, so hopefully some reader can take advantage in the last two hours of the day or so.

Escape Quest of Macclesfield have announced on Facebook that The next 5 bookings made using the code blackfriday will only pay £50 per room for any size team. This deal expires at midnight tonight.

Similarly, Bath Escape have made a Facebook post suggesting that you can book today and receive a 25% discount! Use the code black to get your discount!

GR8escape York‘s opening discount has gone, but has been replaced by a Christmas offer: To help spread the Christmas spirit at Gr8escape York, we are offering £10 off all bookings made from now until the end of December. This is for all group sizes and all available time slots in the month of December. Just use the code Spy School Xmas at the final payment stage.

On top of that, LivingSocial are running a Black Friday campaign, giving 10% off (at least most) of their vouchers. This is particularly relevant to this site because a voucher permitting play for any size group for £39. (Be warned that using the voucher to play on Friday, Saturday or Sunday attracts a £10 supplement, to be paid in cash.) The usual LivingSocial conditions apply. While that voucher has a time limit, the site has its own voucher scheme providing a variety of discounted play options for the first three months of 2015.

Some other ongoing offers include:

Logiclock of Nottingham has an offer called 50-50-5 whereby the first fifty teams to look through the site and find the five miscoloured digits can earn a 50% discount on their ticket.

Locked In Games of Leeds has a Groupon deal that has expired, but try the coupon code of lockedinnovember at the checkout stage for a £30/team ticket in November.

Puzzlair of Bristol announced on Twitter that they have entering the code Twitter on booking will provide a 25% discount until Christmas.

If the Black Friday offer at Escape Quest of Macclesfield has expired, the site has posted an opening discount: For bookings made during November use the code Special20 to get 20% off the price. Sounds good!

Escape Hunt of London’s Challenge is still on and may be the best deal going now that the time-limited 25% coupon promotion has expired. Also in London, Escape Rooms have a VisitLondon10 code for 10% off on weekdays up to 5pm.

As ever, if you know of other coupons, deals, vouchers or competitions, please send them through. If your site has a offer not listed above, please don’t assume the worst; get in touch and this site will happily spread the good news. (Alternatively, if you would prefer that this site does not list your coupon, or if the details of the offer are mangled, that’s fine too; again, please get in touch.)

October 2014 Dealwatch: coupons and discounts to play exit games for less

Green and black "SAVE" star logoIt might be wise to think of Dealwatch as officially no longer a “once per month” event, but more when there are sufficiently many and/or interesting deals to justify there being a post. This month, there are a couple of competitions worth mentioning as well with free games as prizes. The usual rules are in operation:

  • Terms and conditions doubtless apply and this site takes no responsibility for deals that fall through for whatever reason. These are not exclusive in any shape or form;
  • Many of these deals only permit a limited number of vouchers to be purchased and then the deal will expire. It’s quite possible that deals may expire between being published below and your attempt to use them;
  • This site does not attract any commission, whether you click through and purchase the deals or not.

Puzzlair of Bristol have a LivingSocial voucher operational right now. Choose between a £30 voucher for three, a £36 voucher for four and a £40 voucher for five. A cancellation/re-scheduling policy of 72 hours applies and the voucher is subject to forfeiture. Any vouchers must be enjoyed by Sunday 18th January, 2015.

Bath Escape of Bath have an eBay deal operational right now. This is selling ten vouchers to play its Haunted House escape room for £50 instead of the usual £78. However, these vouchers are only valid between 11am and 9pm on Tuesday to Friday; weekend games are excluded and the site closes on Mondays. You must arrive 15 minutes before the booked game time, and Bath Escape’s usual bonus birthday cake if someone is celebrating on the day does not apply.

The Great Escape Game of Sheffield is a site not previously mentioned and has not yet opened; bookings are not yet available, but the site may open in the middle of the month. Promotional ticket prices are 5 players for £70, 4 players for £60 and 3 players for £48, but sign up on their site for 10% off your first booking. Bear in mind that games are run to a 45 minute time limit rather than the frequent hour deadline.

Can You Escape? of Edinburgh are also not yet open, but their social media are ramping back up once more. Cleverly, they have tweeted that they will be “giving away #freetickets for our VIP week to the first person who guesses our location”. If you like an exit game, you’ll likely like a treasure hunt as well, so this promotion may well hit the spot, and further clues are eagerly awaited.

The Gr8 Escape of Belfast also have a competition on social media. Much as they are running a Hallowe’en-themed room this month, they will be running a Christmas-themed room in December, and they have made a Facebook post calling for suggestions for a name for it. The suggestion with most “Like”s by the end of the month wins. Surely a cunning way to attract attention!

Lock and LOL of London posted to this site’s Facebook page (!! – but it’s a good way of doing it, and certainly welcome) that if you use the code “SHERLOCKED” you can book their Moriarty’s Laboratory game for £49.75 instead of £199 for a group of up to 5 people. It’s not clear how long this discount code will be valid for, but it’s worth a try.

As usual, if you know of other coupons, deals, vouchers or competitions, please send them through. If your site has a offer not listed above, please don’t assume the worst; get in touch and this site will happily spread the good news. (Alternatively, if you would prefer that this site does not list your coupon, or if the details of the offer are mangled, that’s fine too; again, please get in touch.)

September 2014 Dealwatch: coupons and discounts to play exit games for less

"On sale" graphicThis site loves it when new sites open and flourish, not least because new sites are the ones most likely to offer discounts; many sites hit the ground running and can do good business at full price before long. Here’s a quick run-through of the deals that this site could find that are still valid. (Ground rules: terms and conditions doubtless apply and this site takes no responsibility for deals that fall through for whatever reason. These are not exclusive in any shape or form. This site does not attract any commission, whether you click through and purchase the deals or not.)

Bath Escape have a Groupon deal available, though Groupon deals tend to go pretty quickly so there’s no telling when this one might run out. £39.95 lets your team of 4-6 play one of the site’s two games (doesn’t apply to the outdoor detective hunts). Book within 14 days of getting the voucher, expires 12th December, only valid Tuesday to Friday 11am-9pm rather than weekends. You must arrive 15 minutes before booked game time and bring your printed voucher on arrival.

Escape of Glasgow have a LivingSocial deal available for, it looks like, the next 11 days or so. £24 lets your team of up to five play at this exciting new site. Voucher expires at the end of 2014 and is valid from Wednesday to Sunday 11am-9pm. The Edinburgh site is hugely popular so it seems unlikely that there’ll be too long before the Glasgow site becomes just as much of a hit.

Escape Hunt of London are set to open on October 3rd. The site has opened for booking very recently, with the highlight being an opening offer. Book by 21st October, to play by 30th November, using code ESCAPE10 and you’ll get a 10% discount. There’s a flyer to print out and share. Additionally, Escape Hunt pays vouchers as commission to those who refer companies wanting Christmas party or team-building activities.

Dealwatch is getting more and more difficult, but that’s not bad news in the least. Those are all the active deals, discounts and coupons this site could find; if you know of others, please send them through – and if your site has a offer not listed above, please don’t assume the worst; get in touch and this site will happily spread the good news. (Alternatively, if you would prefer that this site does not list your coupon, that’s fine too; again, please get in touch.)

August 2014 Dealwatch: coupons and discounts to play exit games for less

"50% discount" graphicOne of the best reasons to keep following this blog for news of new sites is that sites tend to be more likely to offer discounts immediately after they’ve opened than later on. (There is a school of thought that offering discounts too frequently will drive people to wait for the next discount to come along and delay their purchase; for instance, has anyone ever paid full price for a three-piece suite?) Here’s a quick run-through of the deals that this site could find that are still valid. (Ground rules: terms and conditions doubtless apply and this site takes no responsibility for deals that fall through for whatever reason. These are not exclusive in any shape or form.)

One hot new discount comes from Escape Glasgow, of the Dear Green Place, which is opening its first room either today or tomorrow. If you’re quick, there is a flash Wowcher deal active, but you need to book it by 23:59 this Friday night, so a little over two days away. Teams of 2-6 get to play for £24 rather than £60. Vouchers are only valid until 22nd November. (Supposedly 34 have gone already; it’s not clear if there’s a limit, but don’t hang around.)

Another new site, Escape Rooms of London, also have a deal going where a quick response is required. Until Sunday 24th, share a post they made on their Facebook on August 11th on your Facebook. If your share gets five “Like”s, take a screenshot and e-mail it to them for a 50% discount on your first game. Cunning plan! The post explains the details. (Edited to add: Additionally, Escape Rooms made a Groupon voucher available, and told this site about it before 10am one morning. When this site came to check out the details less than 12 hours later, the voucher was no longer available because all 100 vouchers had been bought. That’s fast. In fact, all 100 went within just four hours – but a few more are set to be released on each of the coming days, so look out and try to be in the right place at the right time.)

Bath Escape had a blog post last week relevant here; solve the riddle, e-mail the solution to them and follow them on social media for a 10% discount, refunded in cash in person. It’s not clear if there is a time limit for this offer.

It’s arguably a good sign that every other deal in last month’s Dealwatch seems to have expired or sold out and that the existing sites are selling out without offering discounts. You really do need to act quickly. Escap3d Dublin had a Groupon offer that started after the last Dealwatch and has already finished, which might point towards Dealwatch needing to become more frequent than monthly.

In the short term, or if you’re looking for deals outside the UK and Ireland, there are many reasons to commend the Intervirals weblog; Essa does a tremendous job at pointing out exit game special offers from around the world as they become available.

Bath Escape

Bath Escape logoIt seems a reasonable generalisation that if you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance that you enjoy discoveries, particularly pleasant surprises. It’s always a thrill to find a new exit game of which this site was previously ignorant. There was an even bigger pleasant surprise recently when Essa got in touch to introduce Intervirals, a fan blog about room escape games. (Seems like a good idea!)

Essa’s site has been running since February this year, so this site happily tips its cap to acknowledge Intervirals’ seniority. It’s full of posts crammed with excellent links, taking a global view more effectively than even the Around the World posts made here, plus information about coupons and discounts analogous to this site’s Dealwatch posts. Most impressively at all, Intervirals has national exit game directories for fifteen European countries and fifteen other countries from around the world. That’s dedication and bravery for you, and Intervirals goes straight into this site’s blogroll and links page.

There’s also considerable resourcefulness and talent; Intervirals knew about Bath Escape, which has been open since mid-June when word had not reached this site. (How many more similarly covert exit games are there out there? The more, the merrier!) This is a great find because it’s a very interesting proposition.

The site features two exit games called Six Locked Doors and The Haunted House Escape. The first of these sounds like an unusually high quantity of doors, making it quite a big game as they go; quoting an ideal team size of 4-5 (and a maximum of 6), this game has a time limit of 75 minutes, pointing to a meatier challenge than most. Teams of 3-4 are recommended to go for the 60-minute Haunted House Escape instead.

However, the site also really cleverly features walking tours of Bath, and these take a form much more like a sequential puzzle hunt, where location-specific puzzles direct you to your next destination and the next part of the story. These can be played by teams of 2-6 and are estimated to take 2-3 hours; it may well be that they’re not against the clock at all. The first two games are Case No. 219, exploring Bath landmarks, and Victoria’s Secret, centred around the Royal Victoria Park, taking in the Botanical Garden and the Royal Crescent.

This site is not familiar with anybody else taking exit games and puzzle tours together, but it’s a smart pairing – if you like one, there’s a very good chance you’ll like the other, and there’s something to do on both indoor and outdoor days. The fact that both of them converge at the Princes’ Treasury tea room also makes it sound like a really well-integrated facility. (Check out the tea room’s crepe menu from October! Mmm…) Don’t think too hard about the pronunciation here, but what could be finer than an escape and a crepe?